Metro Rail to Acquire 612 sq. yards of ISKCON Land

BY: STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Jul 27, 2014 — HYDERABAD, INDIA (TIMES OF INDIA) — After a protracted battle, the Hyderabad district administration and Hyderabad Metro Rail authorities will soon acquire 612.77 square yard land belonging to International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) near St. John's Rotary in Secunderabad for metro rail corridor-III (Nagole- Shilparamam stretch). Earlier, the HMRL had wanted 1339.35 sq metres (1,601.85 sq yards) of temple land, but after protests and several rounds of discussions, the land to be acquired was pruned to 612.77 sq yards.

Protesting the move to acquire their property, Iskcon management had suggested to HMRL to change alignment without disturbing the temple land. HMRL rejected the request stating that the alignment was set by a professional team from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation by taking several technical aspects and safety point of view into consideration. However, keeping in view the religious sentiments attached to the temple, the HMRL sent revised plans to reduce the extent from 1,601.85 sq yards to 612.77 sq yards.

Responding to the HMRL plan, Hyderabad collector Mukesh Meena and land acquisition officer conducted inspection in October last and sent a report to HMRL. Later, the HMRL asked the collector to acquire Iskcon land as per the Land Acquisition Act.

At a meeting with Iskcon representatives recently, HMRL managing director NVS Reddy convinced them and assured that none of the assets of temple would be affected.

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